Emerald Gleaner: Spirit of Dissent

by Legionary

Chapter 6: Mother is God

The vast, seemingly endless desert of The End remained as empty and untouched as ever. Even with the absence of its creator, it would likely take untold centuries for life to even begin to return to this place. The desert remained unnaturally silent and still, so silent one could hear their own heart beat... then a zipper suddenly appeared in midair.

The zipper opened up to reveal a vast void which Discord emerged from. As the zipper closed behind him, the Spirit of Chaos took in his surroundings.

'This horrid wasteland never ceases to remind me why I never visit,' Discord thought with a shake of his head. 'I wouldn't have even come if I hadn't gotten an invitation of all things from The End.'

It wasn't too long ago that the Spirit of Chaos had sensed The End approaching him. It was kind of hard not to if one had any kind of ability to sense the local Spiritual Realm. For eons the Spiritual Realm had been a quiet and uneventful place, but it wasn't a void. The End's approach within the Spiritual Realm was like feeling a vast well of energy suddenly sprouting a moving, empty sphere a hundred miles in diameter within it.

Considering that The End hadn't moved from his spot for the entirety of Discord's own eons long life, the Spirit of Chaos hadn't known what to expect. An invitation to the equivalent of a friendly get together was the last thing he expected.

Of course, getting an invitation and no explanation whatsoever... that he expected of The End.

'I could have just ignored it,' Discord thought as he lazily floated in midair. 'But I'm honestly interested in what makes a Primordial Spirit who contentedly stays in one place for eons decide to have a get together. Hopefully I'm not the only guest here.'

Discord looked around but it appeared he was early, though he hadn't exactly been given a time to arrive at. Not willing to chance missing the meeting, Discord just settled in to wait. Though he gave the impression of being very much alike the average mortal in behavior, that was just learned conduct over eons of interaction with mortals. Discord was still very much an ageless spirit, a Primordial purely in respect to the power he had the instant he was born. He was fully capable of sitting in one place and letting time pass him by; it went against his nature as a Spirit of Chaos and thus he disliked doing so, but he was capable and would do so right now.

And so Discord laid back in a nonexistent hammock and waited.

In a place like the desert of The End it was hard to keep track of time. Even if one had a watch, it was all but certain it would have simply stopped working. So, as Discord waited, he didn't bother to keep specific track of every passing moment, therefore he didn't know just how much time was passing. It could have been months, weeks, days, hours or even mere minutes. Eventually, however, he felt the rapid approach of several incredibly powerful presences in the Spiritual Plane, one of which shocked him completely and utterly into stillness.

The first Primordial arrived, its form coalescing into the physical plane. A black and dark red shadowy spot formed suddenly on the ground. A shape shot out of it and took the form of a very long torso, a vague shape of a bare top of a male human. It had two pairs of arms, both sprouting from the same shoulder sockets but splitting away and reaching forwards and backwards and ending in hands with four fingers and two thumbs. The head was human shaped but its facial features most definitely were not; namely the fact it had two faces that seemed to be shoving each other as the front of the head clearly only had room for one face. Suddenly, with a horrifying flesh tearing noise, the body near completely split in two down the middle, fleshy webbing connecting the split ends and the faces much more content now that they technically had a head each.

This Primordial was The Divide, Spirit of Conflict, of War, of Competition.

The second Primordial to arrive did so in a cloud of dust and ash that appeared from nothing and rapidly combined together to form the body. It was a small thing, hunched over and withered looking. Its skin was like that of an extremely thin piece of hide drawn tightly across a drum. It had four limbs, four arms like The Divide but instead of two pairs sharing shoulder sockets it was a pair in the expected spot and another pair where the arms should have been. The skin on the limbs grew tighter and tighter with less flesh underneath until it gave way to torn shreds halfway down, the rest of the limb being nothing but yellowed bone and bright red, irritated tendon. It had no neck, just a near featureless face with empty sockets that seemed to sink forever. It had a mouth like that of a toothless leech that could expand to such a size that should have simply torn its whole body asunder. Instead, it let it swallow whole anything it could force into it with its clawed bone hands.

This was The Fade, Primordial Spirit of Starvation, Desiccation and Lack.

The third Primordial to arrive did so from below. A patch of powdery ground that made up the desert of The End suddenly bulged up before the powder exploded out in a vast, obscuring cloud. When the cloud settled back down it revealed a vast, bloated form. It had the body of a great, fat, pulsating larva, its great and many rolls constantly shifted and moved on its form and it seemed to be perspiring great amounts of a sweetly odored liquid that oozed and glinted. It moved by dragging itself along by great, suckerless tentacles along its bottom that slapped at the ground and sent its constantly excreted ooze flying. It lay there like a great disgusting slug for a long moment before its tendrils pushed the “front” half of its body off the ground and curled it in on itself. Its body split open and the strangely empty skin took to the air. Suddenly it flipped over and revealed a pale white, locust-like creature with a bulging abdomen, startlingly beautiful vast wings made out of the split flesh and tendrils serving as great streamers that instantly slimmed down, sprouting off of the wing edges. Even now it continued to glint and drip with the sweetly smelling ooze.

This was The Surge, Primordial Spirit of Plenty, Overabundance, Life and Gluttony.

The fourth Primordial to arrive did so from a single mote of blue light. A small blue fairy light had appeared in mid air and from it burst forth a whole body. It was much like Discord's body - long, serpentine, winged and horned. But unlike Discord, this body had parts that all naturally fit together instead of being a mishmash of parts from various species. Blue scales that glittered like polished sapphires, white gold claws and horns, a pair of gray eyes and a pair of wings with snow white membranes.

This was The Order, Primordial Spirit of Obedience, Civilization, Certainty, Unity, basically everything Discord wasn't. She was also his sister.

As Discord openly gaped at his sister, The End made his own entrance. There wasn't anything fancy about it, he was just suddenly there. The End simply stood in place and the Primordials formed a circle save for Discord who was still staring at his sister. Order didn't seem to want to give Discord even an instant of her time, keeping her gaze on The End but the others were staring at Discord. After another moment the Spirit of Chaos took a deep breath and joined the circle.

“No Harmony? Good riddance!” the left half of the Divide spoke first, his other half adding a comment but the left sounded disappointed and sad. “It's been so long since I've spoken to my better half. I cherish each day she remains unseen and unheard.”

“No Fate, no Fate, ALL FADES...” The Fade chittered before jamming one of his bony hands into his mouth and grinding his teeth on it.

“Fate, astoundingly snooty for one who guides all destinies,” The Surge tutted, twirling in place and sending droplets flying. “Chances of her being absent were overwhelming.”

“I for one am not surprised The End had not bothered to retrieve The Fury,” Order stated, crossing her arms. “His sealing is deep and powerful and his behavior is frustrating. It was all but certain he would be passed by. My thanks for not doing the same for me and my own sealing.”

“...” The End simply shrugged and shuffled its feet.

“Now now End, you went through all this effort to gather us. Be a good chum and speak up!” The Surge encouraged, floating over and patting one of its vast wings against The End's back.

“Yes, speak. No, be silent! ” The Divide's two halves added. “You should have let us be, there was so much wondrous conflict on the verge of igniting! I'm glad to have been invited. It has been so long since the majority of us gathered together.”

“...It is the time of endings,” The End spoke eventually, its voice an exhausted drone. “Of truths once thought absolute... of realities steady and unchanging... of a future once certain now ended... it is our fate to be irrelevant.”

With that, The End sat down and bowed its head. There was a long moment of silence as the others simply stared at The End and then disappeared one by one. The Fade simply skittered into the distance before diving into the powder. The Surge gave a delighted chortle before wrapping itself in its wings and shrinking away into nothingness. The Divide gave an interested hum while the other half gave a disgusted snort before they snapped back together and sunk into the ground.

“Meeting adjourned, then,” The Order stated simply before finally turning her head to Discord and the Spirit of Chaos was instantly struck by how utterly filled with rage her eyes were. “Now... brother dearest. I've been looking forward to meeting you again for exactly one hundred and eight thousand, seven hundred and sixty nine years, six months, four days, and thirty eight seconds.”

The Order released a scream of fury and hate so loud a cloud of dust was kicked up for dozens of miles around. She leapt at Discord with her hands outstretched for his neck. Discord, having been in a situation much like this right after his own unsealing, reacted quickly and teleported away but with his sister hot on his heels.

The End remained sitting, one arm wrapped around his legs and one hand making circles in the sand.

ALPHA

Emerald sighed as she leaned back in her chair, rubbing at her temples in an attempt to soothe a headache that was purely psychological.

It had been a solid week since the fiasco at the Channeler Monastery. Currently Emerald was sitting in her office in the Hub. The aftermath of viewing the Tapestry of Fate had been very eventful to say the least. While the Grand Masters of the Order had been understanding, they were still in horrible shock after the sudden loss of their Old Masters. Knowledge from all parts of their long and storied history had been annihilated in a moment. Then was the political fallout from the Republic. For the most part the senators and bureaucrats of the Republic took the Channelers at face value when they said Emerald wasn't at fault. The rest, however...

'Having burning memories in my mind was bad enough. Then I had to focus and deal with accusations of assassination and sabotage straight after,' Emerald thought with an irritated huff. 'Thankfully it wasn't a very large movement. I just had to be calm and play it honestly. The system worked without needing to be greased and for that I am thankful. Course, there was the fact that there were more than a few people in the League willing to leap at the worst possible explanation for what happened...'

While Emerald knew her reputation was a bit divisive, she didn't think it was so much so that people were willing to latch onto the first bit of bad press to use against her. Turns out that was very much the case. There was a noticeable group made up almost entirely of herbivores that had taken the story of her assassinating the Old Masters and running with it. Of course with the Channelers backing Emerald and stating what the truth was, this group didn't get anywhere. Still, Emerald made note of this event all the same.

'I wish things just calmed down for more than a single god damn day,' Emerald thought with a frown as she stared down at some reports. 'Security spiked around points of interests all over Zebrica and no official of importance is without a twenty four hour guard. I was hoping things would go smoothly and we'd manage a clean blow, but I guess that was too much to be wishing for. Still, it's not the end of the world. It's not like one of the neochangling was captured, or the Zebricans knew who was messing with them.'

Emerald looked up at the clock on the wall and noticed the time. With another sigh at being so busy, the virus stood up and was about to teleport when she shook her head and decided to simply walk today. As she left her personal office, the virus couldn't help but think on the situation in Zebrica further. She knew the neochanglings and the diamond dogs involved in the mission were all very competent and well trained, but... some part of her couldn't help but loudly think how she likely could have done it without getting caught.

'No. I shouldn't get caught up in that kind of thinking,' Emerald thought to herself with a frown as she exited the building holding her office. 'The whole point of getting other people to do things for me is so I don't have to do everything myself. I can't just attempt to go back to the old way of doing things just because the people I have working for me aren't doing things exactly the way I'd do them.'

Soon the virus was walking through the streets of the Enclave. 'New Town', the new section of the city that had been under construction for so long, was finally fully finished and had people moving into its many tall, beautifully crafted stone buildings. Suiting its title, this place had almost an entirely immigrant population with the majority of the original population in the more rugged looking 'Old Town'. Emerald honestly preferred New Town to Old Town. All the dogs here treated her with respect worthy of royalty which was its own barrel of irritation, but it was a far cry to the religious deference the dogs in Old Town were getting up to. Combined with the stress of the politics and the devolving situation in Zebrica, Emerald actively started telling them to quit it instead of trying to ignore it.

'I really shouldn't be taking it out on them,' Emerald thought as she gave a small nod to a group of dogs shouting greetings as she passed by. 'But god damn if this situation isn't making me feel anxiously helpless. The urge to charge right in is eating away at me. I just want to get this whole thing over with so I can work on my own stuff, but I can't do that. I have no idea what I'm dealing with and the mindset that overwhelming power will cover for everything is just plain flawed.'

Eventually Emerald arrived at the train station of the Hub. Since the Hub wasn't supposed to be allowing foreign dignitaries in, it was a very utilitarian and industrial looking platform, a bit of a far cry from the luxurious looking train platform located in the Everfree Embassy. However, sometimes exceptions can be made...

“Queen Bon Bon,” Emerald greeted with a nod of her head. “Welcome to the Hub. You are the very first foreign political figure to be allowed here.”

“Thank you for allowing this, Emerald Gleaner,” Bon Bon stated formally, dressed very royally with two female changeling attendants at her side. “I am very grateful for your generosity in this matter.”

“It's... no problem.” Emerald frowned and couldn't help a nervous shuffle of her feet. With a quick breath, she looked determinedly into Bon Bon's eyes. “We have history together. Some good... some very, very bad. I know this is probably asking too much too soon, but... if you'd allow it, I'd like to go about this a touch more... casually.”

“It would be my pleasure, Emerald.” Bon Bon smiled earnestly, to Emerald's immense relief.

“Thank you, Bon Bon,” Emerald said with a smile, releasing a held breath. “Come on. We'll talk a bit as we head there.”

“Of course,” Bon Bon said and began to walk just beside Emerald, her two attendants falling back a bit. “I've been hearing quite a bit about you.”

“Oh... hopefully some of that is good,” Emerald said with a somewhat irritated sigh.

“You're being a bit too hard on yourself, Emerald,” Bon Bon assured. “Your hospital is healing ponies who had no hope of recovery and returning life to the tragically dead. Families from across the known world owe the lives of their loved ones to you. I admit not all the things I've heard have been nice, but so many can only speak accolades of you.”

“You really did take my advice to see Celestia, didn't you,” Emerald said with a tilt of her head and wry smile.

“Is it really that noticeable of an improvement?” Bon Bon asked innocently.

“You'll make a great queen, Bon Bon.” Emerald smiled and at that Bon Bon began to gush about the personal lessons she had been getting from Princess Celestia.

'Look at her...' Emerald thought with no little amount of wonderment as Bon Bon happily chatted away. 'Speaking so casually and easily with the person who killed so many of her people; people that she cared so much for. The kind of fortitude she must have, it's simply beyond incredible.'

Emerald couldn't help but be impressed, especially when she had herself to compare Bon Bon to. Emerald was so willing to kill. The very moment she could justify someone's death it would happen almost assuredly without hesitation. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence in the past where people had gotten really angry with her over her willingness to kill. The whole not killing as Batman and not killing Sophie could be argued as proof she was improving, but those had their reasons; she liked the idea of Batman and it was plain heresy to kill as him. And Sophie... she knew leaving her alive was the opposite of mercy. Often she had to be convinced or forced into acts of great kindness and generosity. Twilight had to talk her into healing Sunset Shimmer without strings attached. She had to be backed into a corner politically to open the free hospital. She didn't realize the depths of her flaws until the moment she had detonated a nuke just to test it out.

'…This is getting depressing real fast,' Emerald thought, taking a quick breath. 'Let's focus. We're almost at our location.'

Emerald and Bon Bon arrived before one of the towers in New Town, specifically the one that would house the growing hive of the neochangelings. Entering the structure revealed a near barren, dimly lit lobby with red carpets covering the floor. They followed the carpets leading down dim halls and dark side paths. It was a rather large structure but, with most of the neochangelings out on missions and the newborns only having reached larval stage, very little of it was inhabited. Still though, with the new Queen Ambrosia steadily laying eggs it would eventually be bustling with activity.

Eventually Emerald, Bon Bon and her two attendants arrived before a large pair of double doors. Emerald opened the door and was greeted by the sight of Ambrosia's massive form sitting atop a mass of pillows and blankets. Ambrosia had two neochangelings personally attending to her; she may have been in constant contact with the rest of her hive via the altered feed but a physical presence was still comforting. Along with the attendants there were also half a dozen eggs sitting in the corner with their own cushions and nearly two dozens larvae nestled against the mass of Ambrosia. The virus wasn't surprised when she saw Bon Bon freeze and her two attendants gasp audibly. The neochanglings were just so different from changelings. Changelings were fairly insectoid but the next generation as well as the queen of the neochangelings were definitely accentuating that.

'I saw what larval changelings looked like in Chrysalis' memories,' Emerald thought. 'Honestly, they seemed more like small changelings in tiny sleeping bags than actual larvae. Neochangling larvae, however, definitely look the part... they are kinda gross, actually.'

Pulsating slabs of pale, wrinkly flesh that didn't have any facial features whatsoever or even limbs of any kind; they definitely weren't a pleasant sight. Normally larvae had some kind of little grasping, pincer-like limbs to hold onto the ground as they wiggled around. These larvae did not. It made sense, since neochangelings drew sustenance from emotions which could be fed to them via a magical network. Thus they had little need for things like a mouth, eyes or even limbs in this stage of their life.

“Goodness me, they are quite the sight aren't they?” Bon Bon said quietly after regaining composure.

“Definitely clearly different now.” Emerald nodded before giving an encouraging nod to Bon Bon.

Bon Bon took in a breath before stepping forward towards the awaiting form of the neochangling queen.

“Greetings,” Bon Bon greeted with a short, respectful bow of her head and opened her mouth to speak more.

“You are the new Queen of the Changelings,” Ambrosia's voice spoke into Bon Bon's mind, also allowing Emerald to listen in. “We have remained aware of events regarding our former people.”

“Yes... I wish the same could be said of us,” Bon Bon said regretfully. “I heard of how we had treated you after you transformed into what you are now.”

“You were an infiltrator on permanent assignment,” Ambrosia stated simply. “You were not the queen. You had no authority. You could not have done anything.”

“I could have offered an honest smile and a kind word,” Bon Bon retorted defiantly with a determined stare. “It may not sound like much, but in my experience sometimes that's all you really need.”

“If the intent is to 'win us back over’...” Ambrosia began.

“It isn't.” Bon Bon shook her head. “This is your new home now, but... are we not still family? Don't we have the same mother? Shouldn't siblings try to remain in touch with one another and be kind to each other?”

“...We had a few friends who, even after everything, we can not help but wonder about,” Ambrosia admitted. “It would be nice to see if it were possible to get back in touch...”

Emerald smiled and nodded towards Ambrosia before turning on the spot and teleporting away. The only real thing she had been concerned about was the two of them getting along. She should have had more faith in the social butterfly that was Bon Bon to overcome past history. Assured that things would be alright, she decided to leave and take the opportunity to inspect her facilities.

An instant later found the virus appearing in the skies over the borders of Equestria and the Everfree, specifically where her international hospital had been built. It was a large brick structure with the typical red cross on the front and a large lot up front decorated with gardens and flower beds. Filling this lot was a massive, diverse crowd of beings. Peoples of all kinds were gathered here to use the free hospital to heal themselves of disability and illness as well as revive their recently tragically dead friends and family.

Seeing families from all across the world tearfully and joyfully embracing healed or revived loved ones boosted Emerald's self esteem quite a bit. It's one thing to have someone tell you, you are doing good. But to see the good consequences of your actions? Somehow it did lighten Emerald's guilty heart, made her feel like maybe someday she could truly put her past behind her.

'Well who do we have here?' Emerald thought as she noticed a familiar rainbow mane. 'What's she up to?'

Emerald dove down towards the roof of the hospital and slowed her descent before softly landing. She walked over to the edge of the roof, where lining the edge was a small, waist high barrier wall. Rainbow Dash was here, resting her head on her crossed over forelegs which were atop the barrier wall, calmly and silently watching the crowds of people coming and going.

“Dash?” Emerald said as she walked over to stand beside the pegasus. Rainbow Dash didn't answer, however. She simply continued staring. Deciding that Rainbow Dash would answer when she wanted to, Emerald dropped down onto a knee and joined her in watching the crowds.

It was nearly half an hour later that Rainbow Dash finally said something.

“How does your eating work?” the pegasus asked suddenly.

“Huh?” Emerald raised her brow questioningly.

“When you eat someone... how does it work?” Rainbow Dash clarified calmly, still staring down at the crowds below.

“Weeeeeell...” Emerald began somewhat hesitantly. “When I eat a part of someone, like say some hair, I simply sample their DNA and if it's something useful or genuinely better then what I already have, I amplify it greatly. If I consume someone whole, however, brain and all... I get their complete memories as well, although I make sure to cordon off said memories. Because when I experience someone else's memories, they aren't a show for me to watch. I actually experience them from their point of view, emotions and all. So if I just absorbed every memory I have at my disposal, I'd very, very quickly start to become an entirely different person.”

“Hrrm...” Rainbow grunted and continued to stare down for a long moment before finally turning her head and looking into Emerald's eyes with an unreadable look. “You can bring people back from the dead in this place... I want you to bring back Gilda.”

“Wha- but she's long dead. The machines in this hospital need a fresh-” Emerald started with wide eyes.

“I don't care. You have all her memories.” Rainbow shook her head firmly. “Just make a new body and put those memories in there. You gotta do this, Emerald.”

“Dash, where in the world is this coming from?” Emerald asked with a frown and furrowed brows.

“Just thinking about everything that's happened since we met,” Rainbow Dash said softly, eyes staring up at the sky. “Horrible to admit, but the people you killed before we met don't really mean anything to me. I mean it's horrible and all, but... it's just hard to really feel something about that. But after you got here... and you killed a few people, hurt a lot more. I... I...”

Rainbow Dash suddenly started to tear up a little, and she quickly brought her hooves up to roughly wipe away the moisture before they could properly form into tears. “You know me. I take a lot of pride in being a loyal friend. It's what I am! The Element of Loyalty... I mean I know I betrayed you... but you betrayed me back so we gotta be even, right? Not like we didn't make up, either... heh, I'm rambling like Twilight does.”

Emerald stayed silent and simply listened to Rainbow Dash. It wasn't often the pegasus exposed her vulnerable side like this so the virus wasn't going to risk doing or saying something until she had to.

“I guess I understand a bit how Twilight feels now.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Everything you've done. By just... living with it, she has to share the guilt, too. I mean... Gilda, we kinda stopped being friends before you killed her, but... you killed my friend, Emerald. And every day I don't say anything about it... I just... it hurts, Emerald. It hurts so much! Please just do this one thing for me! I mean I've never asked a fav-”

Emerald raised her head and Rainbow Dash quieted instantly. “Wait here. I'll be right back.”

With that, Emerald teleported away.

The virus arrived in the clouds above with a flash of red light. She pursed her lips into a thin line and took a few moments to think about her next course of action. Her eyes scanned over the world below before they landed upon a certain area in the Everfree.

An instant later, Emerald arrived in a clearing.

'The more things change, the more they stay the same,' Emerald thought as she took in her surroundings. 'The plant life has regrown somewhat, but this place is still recognizable.'

Over three years later, Emerald was finally back in the very area she had killed Gilda, and then later her father and his knights. The grass had definitely long since grown back, but beyond that there were only tiny shrubs and a few saplings darted here and there. The virus then began to wander the area. She wandered until her foot impacted something with a 'tink' noise.

'This metal has been warped by heat,' Emerald thought after crouching down and picking the metal up. It was a spike shaped piece of bronze plated steel. 'This must have been a sword that was partly melted by Prince Bergren's suicide attack.'

Emerald dropped the piece of metal and slowly started to make her way towards the somewhat crumbled shape of the cavern she had killed Gilda in. She took her steps slowly and scanned her eyes over the ground. Eventually something else caught her eye and she bent down to pick it up.

'An old, broken bone, long since picked clean,' Emerald thought as she examined half a femur in her hands. 'I can bring Gilda back. I could even bring back a few of the knights I killed... a few. I can't bring back Bergren. I can't bring back the vast majority of the knights who followed him. There is no undoing what happened here.'

Emerald dropped the bone unceremoniously and stood back up. She continued towards the cavern but once again came to a stop before she reached it. She bent down again and brushed at the ground, exposing a broken, years old charred piece of palisade. Turning her head left and right, she could make out the line of logs that were planted into the ground.

'And the little fort they made their final stand in,' Emerald thought as she stood back up. 'Ready to face down the monster that killed one of their own without hesitation. None of them ran away, none of them showed fear... they just kept fighting until there were none left.'

With that, Emerald stood up again and finally entered the cavern.

The interior of the cavern was still filled with the somewhat rough furnishings the knights had built out of local wood. Time, however, had taken its toll. Most of the furnishings had fallen apart due to part of them slowly rotting away. Scattered across the floor were shreds of paper, the remains of the many maps and documents the knights had made during their hunt of her. Most were rotted beyond any kind of recognizable info, but a few things were visible on some.

'Ponyville...' Emerald thought as she picked up a rotted piece of paper, a portion of the map it had on its surface still legible. 'They had been so very prepared to hunt me down, to flush me out and seek vengeance for the murder of a young girl. Will that same girl do the same? The smart thing to do would be to just continue living with the consequences of my actions... hope that Dash can forgive me for not following through... the smart thing to do way back then would have been to just murder Twilight then and there, too, and look how that would have ended up...'

Emerald threw the paper into the air where it danced for a few moments before slowly beginning to drift down. Before it could get anywhere near the floor, both it and everything else that had been built or brought by the knights were annihilated in a flash of light. In one single instant, Emerald had restored the cave to how it was all those years ago, right down to the flickering campfire Gilda had made herself.

The virus walked over and sat down at the fire and stared into its flames for a long moment before looking over to her side. Reaching a hand out to the empty spot Gilda had occupied years ago, tendrils left her palm and rapidly branched out and started filling space. Emerald had quite a bit of experience in building lifeforms. Building something she essentially had a complete blueprint for was incredibly easy and was done within moments. The harder part was placing the required memories.

'I hardly want her to recall having her neck snapped,' Emerald thought as she scanned the newly created clone's neural pathways. 'I'll leave off the memories to just a minute before, let her think she randomly fell asleep.'

With that Emerald withdrew her hand and stood up. She looked over the fully grown, slumbering form of the Gilda clone before nodding and quietly walking out of the cavern. Once outside again, she took in the slowly recovering area surrounding the cavern. Recalling the perfect memories of the very first time she had been here, Emerald reached out with her power and set about restoring the area.

Remains of the battle with the knights and rangers were completely cleaned out or burned away. Chopped down trees were regrown and all signs of the little fort the knights had created were erased. Within just a few minutes it was as if the clock had been turned back to several years ago.

Emerald took one last look around to ensure her work was correct before throwing one last conflicted look over her shoulder at the cavern. Then, with a flash of light, she was gone.

An instant later Emerald was back on the roof of the hospital where she had left Rainbow Dash. Said pegasus was still there staring down at the crowds. Emerald joined her at the ledge and the two continued their staring in silence for a long while.

“Did ya do it?” Rainbow Dash asked finally, voice barely louder than a whisper.

“Yes.” Emerald nodded. “...Do you want me to tell you where she is?”

“What all does she know?” Dash looked at Emerald with wide eyes.

“From her point of view, she just recently stopped being friends with you,” Emerald answered.

“It's been three years, though...” Dash frowned as she looked back down.

“She'll be in for some very confusing times when she gets back to the Principalities,” Emerald agreed with a grim look. “And no little amount of heartbreak, too.”

“... I'm not ready to see her again.” Rainbow gave a shaky sigh, folded her forelegs over one another on the ledge and rested her head atop them. “All this trouble I went through to get you to bring her back and I can't even go see her... big, dumb, cowardly hypocrite...”

“I guess that makes the both of us,” Emerald said and wrapped an arm around Dash's shoulders. “...So how is the Academy nowadays? Your friend Lightning Dust doing okay?”

“Spitfire’s been flying us ragged to make up for failing weather schedules, but me and Dust can handle whatever she throws at us...”

BETA

In the realm of dreams, Luna continued her nightly work of watching over her people's wellbeing.

It was work as usual for the Princess of the Night and it was even a bit light tonight as only a few dreams required her to give a helping push. However, putting the dreams of her ponies aside, Luna did feel something was off with her nightly work in the past few weeks. Barring the moments she openly spent with dreaming ponies and Emerald, this place was one of solitude and peace for her and yet...

'Why is it that I feel as if I am being spied upon?' Luna thought with a frown as even now the feeling persisted. 'That cannot truly be the case, can it? Only Emerald and I can freely access this realm and never before have I felt like this, but...'

Suddenly Luna's thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of a presence suddenly entering the dream realm; one she knew very well. A few moments later, Emerald's pony form faded into view and she approached Luna with a smile.

“Hey there, teacher. It's been too long.” Emerald smiled. While the relationship between her and Luna wasn't as close as the one between Twilight and Celestia, she was very fond of the alicorn. She genuinely missed having their lessons together, even the purely therapeutic ones.

“My student!” Luna said happily as the feeling of being watched was instantly forgotten. “Tis indeed been too long, but I understand fully why it has been so. Still, it gives me no little amount of joy to see you here.”

“Yeah, being busy with politics all the time isn't the best thing in the world,” Emerald sighed with a frown. “I feel like I'm missing out on much more important things by devoting most of my time to making strangers happy.”

“The curse of politicians everywhere, I'm afraid.” Luna shook her head. “It had taken a great amount of time for my sister and I to get used to it. Fear not, my student. I am certain you can do the same and manage to maintain a meaningful life at home.”

“I kind of don't want to get used to it, though,” Emerald huffed before shaking her head and smiling at Luna. “So what are you up to, today? The typical dream watching?”

“Yes indeed, though it is quite the quiet night so far,” Luna replied.

“Everyone seems to want excitement without realizing excitement doesn't necessarily cause excitement,” Emerald stated as she walked over to stand beside Luna. “The whole fight with my alternate was definitely exciting, but it was nothing but pure stress for me.”

Emerald turned her attentions to the drifting dream bubbles and couldn't help but smirk at the fairly wholesome scenes within. It was only after many dream sessions with Luna and her unexpected adventure back to Earth that Emerald realized that, yes, ponies did in fact get wet dreams. They were hardly wet dreams compared to the absolutely R-rated nature of the ones humans got, as they consisted purely of cuddling and just being sickeningly sweet sweethearts. Still though, for ponies it was fairly explicit.

'Speaking of explicit, I wonder if the “weird” poses I was getting famed for back when I was a model are still in use,' Emerald thought with a small chuckle. 'I should see about getting one of Photo Finish's magazines. Maybe I'll get lucky and see Fleur De Lis on the cover being suggestive without knowing it.'

Emerald had begun to ponder the idea of inviting Photo and Hoity to one of her political parties to make them more bearable when an oily black nightmare bubble drifted into view.

“Time to work, then?” Emerald said to Luna.

“Indeed,” Luna replied and stepped close to glance into the bubble but recoiled with a gasp. “Emerald, come here!”

Quickly trotting over with a frown, Emerald peered into the nightmare to see what Luna thought she needed to see. After taking but a single glance within, Emerald's eyes widened and she reached out to the bubble and entered it without another single wasted moment. An instant later, Emerald found herself appearing in a very familiar steel prison cell.

It was the Blackwatch prison cells that had been in the Blackwatch base on Liberty Island. Twilight was here in her human form in the center of this cell, struggling against black, shadowy forms lashing at her with claws, lightning and water. Emerald reached out with her dream magic and grabbed hold of matrix of the dream, leashing it to her will. With a wave of her hand she obliterated the shadowy forms before quickly darting to Twilight's side.

“Twilight, are you okay?!” Emerald said with intense worry as Luna coalesced into view. “Why didn't you tell me you were having nightmares about this place?”

“I'm okay, Emerald,” Twilight assured with a sigh. “It was only a few min- wait, nightmare?”

Twilight's eyes shot open and she sat up straighter and immediately noticed Luna's presence in the background.

“Yeah. You are currently dreaming, Twilight,” Emerald said as she wrapped the young alicorn up in a hug. “I know I don't have the right to talk, but if something this bad was happening you should have told me. I can dream walk. I could have done something to put an end to this right away.”

“Well, honestly, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I mean, I was always saved in the end,” Twilight replied and pointed, causing Emerald and Luna to follow the point to see another Emerald standing off to the side with raised brows.

The Dream Emerald stared for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and walking over to sit at Twilight's other side and started holding her as well. Finding herself sandwiched between two Emeralds, Twilight sighed and smiled.

“Have a bit a of a rescue fantasy, huh?” Emerald smiled.

“Not so much as- Ack!” Twilight began but was interrupted by Dream Emerald nuzzling her neck affectionately.

“So a dream construct of myself isn't acting on your subconscious desires?” Emerald asked with a raised brow.

“Okay, fine. I've got a love-hate relationship with this stupid nightmare,” Twilight admitted with a huff. “The first part is so horrible, but then... you arrive and save me.”

“Well well, my hero likes to play the part of the damsel in distress, does she?” Emerald said teasingly and joined her Dream Clone in giving Twilight a loving embrace.

Over to the side, Luna was doing her best to act like she was absurdly fascinated by the plain steel wall to give the two some form of privacy.

“Well... jokes aside... Twilight, this was a pretty horrible time for the both of us,” Emerald said softly. “I don't want to see you just putting up with this just because there is a bright side to it.”

“I know, it's just... you always seem to be holding up so well despite everything,” Twilight replied. “I just didn't want to seem like I couldn't handle a few bad dreams.”

“I think you know very well by now that I don't do that good a job at holding up,” Emerald said, tightening her embrace before letting Twilight go. “Now let's get out of here. I think you would have a very fun time exploring dreams along with Luna and me.”

“I think I'd very much like to take you up on that offer.” Twilight smiled and rose up onto her feet. Emerald stood up as well but frowned a bit when she noticed that Twilight latched onto the Dream Emerald and was leaning against her with a content smile.

“Hey!” Emerald protested melodramatically. “I'm right here!”

“Well she only exists for tonight,” Twilight replied simply as she held onto the smiling dream clone tighter. “Besides, I'm still technically giving you attention.”

“Yeah, technically,” Emerald retorted with a irritated look but her tone of voice held no real heat.

“Ahem. Not to be rude...” Luna broke in. “But might I remind you that while the night does last a fair amount of time here, it does not last forever.”

“Right. Let's get to it, then,” Emerald said and tapped the floor with a foot. Suddenly a section of steel wall peeled away and revealed an extravagant oak door. Unlike Emerald and Luna, Twilight did not know anything about dream walking beyond Luna did it every night and taught it to Emerald. While it was possible to bring along those who could not dream walk into the dreams of others, it was complicated and required much more work than simply popping in and out of dream bubbles. So it was that Emerald created a dream construct for Twilight to use as a bridge into the dreams of others.

“Ready to explore some dreams with us?” Emerald smiled.

“Of course!” Twilight said eagerly and dragged along Emerald's dream clone as she approached the door and threw it open. “I've been interested in seeing what dream walking was like ever since you became Princess Luna's student.”

As Twilight and the dream clone walked through the door, Emerald turned to Luna and mouthed 'thank you' at her. Luna simply gave Emerald a wide smile and the both of them quickly followed after Twilight. Soon after, the door closed and faded away along with the now empty dreamscape.

GAMMA

Navi's giggling filled the air as she played with Sweetie Belle.

Today Emerald was at Rarity's Boutique being fitted for her wedding dress, and because she saw that she was spending little time as it was with Navi, she took the little pegasus Evolved along. Thankfully Sweetie Belle had been around so Navi wouldn't need too much supervision and would be kept distracted. Currently Emerald was standing in place while Rarity fitted her with her wedding dress and was making small adjustments with pins.

“You know, on the rare occasions I imagined myself getting married in the past, I was in a suit, not a dress,” Emerald remarked.

“Emerald dear, a suit simply would not do!” Rarity said in a distinctly appalled fashion, a cushion filled with pins floating in the air near her head. “You are far too beautiful to be wearing anything other than a dress for your special day!”

“Speaking of which, it's a very beautiful dress,” Emerald said as she motioned down at her nearly completed attire.

It was a dress that drew a bit of inspiration from Emerald's own formal dress also made by Rarity. It was practical and not as grandiose as it could have been; it was meant to accentuate Emerald, whom was widely known to be incredibly beautiful. It was mostly white like a proper wedding dress, with golden embroidery and some false armor here and there. It had a feeling much like ceremonial armor which fit her current position as dictator of a highly militarized nation. It was a fairly subtle outfit overall that likely would have had much less of an effect if it wasn't for the fact Emerald was wearing it.

“I can only imagine what Twilight's dress is like,” Emerald said.

“Well keep imaging. These lips will remain sealed and shall tell not a soul ‘til the special day,” Rarity said seriously, to Emerald's amusement. The unicorn then leaned her head in close and continued. “Though I must say, that day is coming a bit closer than I thought it would.”

“Yeah...” Emerald sighed. “Politics at its finest, I'm afraid. We were still planning on a few things and ideas and were coming close to settling on a small private affair for friends and family only when some foreign pressure started flowing in.”

“You're being forced to have your wedding a certain way?!” Rarity gasped, scandalized.

“It's a bit more than that,” Emerald replied, hoof raised in a placating fashion. “The pressure was purely people asking about invitations to the big event and I was all set to simply tell everyone it was going to be a small, private thing, but... well, Twilight got it in her head to help me out a bit and decided we should have our wedding be a huge event like Shining Armor and Cadence's wedding. You know, that way all these officials feel like they’re special by being there personally and maybe give me a bit more leeway with them.”

“Mmm, perhaps that is the reason...” Rarity said hesitantly as she shuffled some pins around in the dress.

“But?” Emerald pressed.

“Well, it's entirely possible that Princess Cadence' redone wedding had an impact on Twilight?” Rarity offered. “I know she doesn't seem the type, but she can definitely appreciate nice clothes. And what little filly doesn't dream of a beautiful wedding in a palace?”

“The kind that spent her whole childhood enjoying learning and reading and had to be taught friendship was a thing?” Emerald replied with a raised brow.

“Well perhaps she really does just want to help you,” Rarity allowed. “But you must admit my idea has some merit.”

“Yeah it does and I've got to admit,” Emerald began. “I like the idea of having some royal level wedding. After all, not everyone gets the chance to have something like this.”

“Oh I know! I'm so excited for you!” Rarity grinned widely before she backed away from Emerald to give her a critical look over. “Hmmmm, I do believe these adjustments will do. Now I- Oof!”

Suddenly a little blue blur rushed at the unicorn and impacted her somewhat solidly. Rarity stumbled and was off balance for a few moments before just managing to regain her footing. She looked down to see Navi hanging off her neck, still wearing her little hat.

“Auntie Rarity! I love you!” Navi announced happily before leaning forward to plant a kiss on the unicorn's cheek. “Mwah~”

“Ooooooh! Auntie loves you too, you adorable little- Mmmh!” Rarity replied happily before interrupting herself and gathering Navi up in a tight hug.

“Heeeee~” Navi giggled happily as Rarity spoiled her with attention.

“Has you eating out of her little hooves, doesn’t she?” Emerald shook her head in amusement. Rarity was definitely going to be Navi's favorite with the ease the little evolved could get a positive response out of the unicorn.

“Is Navi ever going to go to school?” Emerald heard a little voice ask and turned to see Sweetie Belle looking up at her with wondering eyes. “She's been telling me how she gets really bored sometimes waiting for school to let out so she can go play with us. So I was kinda wondering if maybe she can go to school with us?”

“I could have Navi attend, but the issue with that is that Navi learns things as fast as I do,” Emerald replied to the little unicorn. “She would learn everything your teacher has planned for that day within the first few minutes of class. Navi is well behaved, but I doubt she'd stay that way if she had to just sit in class while everyone did school work. I suppose she could just nap whenever she had nothing to do, but that would have its own issues.”

“Awwww...” Sweetie sighed and kicked at the floor a little.

“I know you are trying to do a good thing for Navi, and I really appreciate it Sweetie, but there is a reason I haven't enrolled Navi in school,” Emerald said and patted the little filly's head with her hoof.

“Navi's still bored and lonely sometimes, though.” Sweetie Belle frowned up at Emerald.

“I know, I know,” Emerald sighed. “I guess Spike can only devote so much of his day to keeping her entertained himself. She used to be so good at keeping herself entertained... but then she always could rely on my being home eventually. But lately...”

“Navi says she really misses when she could play with you any time she wanted,” Sweetie Belle said. “She knows you're really busy, but she still misses you when you are gone.”

“...” Emerald frowned deeply, feeling like her heart was breaking a little. She turned to see Navi still being babied by Rarity. She really did wish she could be doing more than she already was...

Suddenly a thought occurred to Emerald. She recalled that Navi put up a good fight against the Blackwatch soldiers but was ultimately incapacitated. Emerald decided she had time to spare to teach Navi some basic self defense and the use of some viral weaponry. Teleporting her dress onto a nearby empty dummy, Emerald approached Navi.

“Navi,” Emerald said and the little viral pegasus turned her attention from Rarity to Emerald. “How would you like to spend an hour or two learning how to defend yourself from me?”

“You're going to teach me how to fight, mama?” Navi said, leaping out of Rarity's grasp to stand before Emerald with wide, excited eyes.

“I will always do everything I can to protect you, but I still want to make sure you are always safe,” Emerald explained.

“Maybe... maybe papa wouldn't have been kidnapped if I knew how to fight...” Navi said quietly as she looked down at the floor with a sad expression, shuffling her hooves as she did so. “And Jared would still be...”

“Hey now, you did what you could and managed to protect Spike and Sunset,” Emerald said and patted the little evolved's head. She then looked to Rarity and asked, “Do you still need me here?”

“No dear, I can make do with the adjustments I've got pinned in place,” Rarity replied as she walked over to the dress on the dummy. “I'll need you later to make doubly sure it all fits as it should, but you can be off. Besides, it's important to spend bonding time with one's own child, is it not?”

“It definitely is.” Emerald smiled and laid a hoof on Navi. “Alright, let's go. I know the perfect spot.”

With that Emerald and Navi disappeared in a flash of pink and reappeared an instant later in the Everfree Forest. Specifically the surface area of the Enclave near the training grounds. The vast, open spaces of the sparring grounds were definitely in use by Warhounds, Direwolves and wolverines. People started at Emerald's sudden arrival and a few approached her.

“Boss!” an unarmored female Direwolf called out as she bounded over. “Ya need something?”

“Not really. Just a portion of the sparring grounds,” Emerald replied as she rapidly shifted forms in a wave of black and red tendrils to her human form. “I'm here to teach Navi how to defend herself.”

“Not a problem, boss! We'll give the both of you some space,” the Direwolf said with a toothy grin before jogging away with loud, shrill whistle to gather attention.

A few moments later, Emerald and Navi were standing in an open field with packed in dirt, facing one another. They were given a large amount of space to themselves but quite a few diamond dogs and wolverines had formed a loose ring to watch in interest.

“Alright, Navi. You ready?” Emerald asked as she pulled up her fists. “Remember, we'll be sparring along with me teaching you a few things.”

“Uh huh!” Navi said and immediately shifted to her own human form before taking up a stance. Said stance was a far cry from Emerald’s calm one and included a lot of movement. Honestly it seemed more like someone decided to make up a small dance routine based on some martial arts stances.

'Well let's teach her not to do that,' Emerald thought and waited a moment to time her own movement before darting forward to deliver a kick. Navi's dance like stance had her half in midair with its bouncing when Emerald's blow landed.

There was a lot of loud gasping as Navi was sent flying a dozen feet with a pained shout from the boot to her face. As soon as she came to a stop she started rolling in place on the ground, hands pressed to her face and feet kicking in the air.

“Owwie...” Navi said with a half choked back sob as she sat up. She stared back towards Emerald with tearing eyes and an unhappy pout.

Emerald for her part had simply frozen in place, hands over her mouth with wide eyes.

“N-Navi, you're supposed to turn your pain receptors off,” Emerald said as she teleported beside the little virus after shaking her own shock off.

“Sorry, mama...” Navi said as she wiped her eyes clean. Emerald picked her up and set her back on her feet.

“Okay... let's start again, alright?” Emerald said, dropping down onto a knee in front of Navi and looking her in the eyes. After she got a nod, she stood up. “Remember, turn your pain receptors off.”

Emerald got back into position. This time Navi was standing still with her hands held to ward off a blow instead of bouncing in place like a fighting game character. After a moment, Emerald leapt forward again with another kick, this time holding back a bit more than she already was to help Navi get up to speed.

Navi half flinched and half consciously directed her hands in front of her face at Emerald's charge. She managed to catch Emerald's foot somewhat accidentally and let out a grunt from the jolt of kinetic force traveling into her from the kick. Emerald paused only a moment to let Navi enjoy that accomplishment before wrenching her foot out of the little girl's grip and delivering a solid hammer blow with her fist to the top of Navi's head.

“Ack!” Navi gave a shout of surprise, but not pain, and found herself forcefully sent back into her sitting position.

“Okay, let's keep going until we get rid of that flinch,” Emerald said and the little virus hopped back onto her feet with a nod as she started to regain her enthusiasm for the lesson.

The “spar” only continued for about a minute more. The point was getting rid of Navi's silly fighting stance and the flinch she had. Since Navi was Blacklight like Emerald was, this didn't take long at all to learn. However, Navi had yet to attempt to strike back at Emerald, partly because she wasn't told to but mostly because the little girl didn't want to hurt her mother, no matter how unlikely it may be.

“Okay, good,” Emerald said with a raised hand. Navi was now mimicking her own stance, hands balled up in fists held up close to her face and ready to block as quickly as she could manage. “Now it's time to get to the point. Now you should be able to replicate the weapons I am about to show you.”

With that, Emerald shifted her arms.

“These are claws,” Emerald explained. Both her arms were now a pair of clear claws with scything, spike-ridden, black and red arms. “They are fast with short range but deadly sharpness. They lack weight so they don't really do well cutting into hard things without a ton of force.”

“And these are hammerfists,” Emerald said. The spikes were gone from her arms, replaced by thick, tough cords and her claws were now minature, biological, spiked boulders. “They are slow and heavy but they have a surprising amount of range. Their weight does a great job as rapid rooting for viral spikes. To resist these you'd need an absurd amount of armor plating.”

“This one here is the whipfist,” Emerald explained as one of her arms returned to normal but the other had become like that of a coiled up mass of monstrous barbed wire ending in a vicious looking, arrowhead-like spike. “It's a ranged and crowd control weapon for weaker opponents. Its main advantages are the fact it can hit and hook things from afar and can be swept across an area. It's not a particularly strong weapon otherwise.

“And this little number is the blade,” Emerald said as her arm shifted into a massive blade with a slight curve to it. “It has longer range than the claws and more weight so it can hit harder and cut into things with heavier armor. It would be a mistake to think this is a straight up upgrade over the claws, however. The blade is slower than the claws and its size doesn't allow for as much agility.”

Emerald paused and thought about the final power she would have shown Navi, tendrils. Tendrils both involved mass injection of viral materials to spontaneously explode tendrils out of the body and throwing viral material at an object which then rapidly grew on their own. Emerald honestly did not trust Navi with tendrils. She didn't think Navi would actively misuse the ability, but her age and general lack of experience would definitely be working against her.

'The whole reason Navi doesn't have all the power I do is because of all the damage she could do purely by accident,' Emerald considered with a hum. 'I'll teach her more advanced viral abilities in a couple years. For now, these four will do.'

“Alright!” Emerald said and clapped her hands. “Now let's get some actual sparring in! Pick any of the weapons I showed you and come at me. We'll set to work on developing some decent combat instincts in you.”

“O-okay, mama!” Navi said a bit hesitantly before forming a pair of comparatively tiny hammerfists. The little virus hesitated another moment, conflicted over not wanting to attack Emerald but wanting to listen to her mother's orders. Finally, with a tiny warcry, Navi leapt through the air with her hammerfists held over her head.

Emerald easily sidestepped the attack even though she was holding herself back. She delivered a kick and sent the little virus flying again. This time Navi landed on her feet. With a huff, the little virus made one of her hammerfists disappear in a wave of tendrils and made the remaining one three times as big. She swung the remaining hammerfist and it suddenly detached from Navi, remaining attached solely via a long, thin, barbed tendril.

'Creative,' Emerald thought as she ducked under the impromptu flail. 'That's good. You don't want to be doing the same things over and over in a fight. That will get you killed fast. Now let's temper that.'

Navi gave a shout as she swung her flail again only for Emerald to slice the tendril with the blade and the hammerfist went flying a few feet before burying into the dirt. All the while the surrounding audience cheered on the sparring mother and daughter duo.

DELTA

A week later, Emerald was staring out a stained glass window and watching crowds swarming below.

Currently the virus was in a bedroom of the Royal Palace and looking out the window to the courtyard. It was the day of her wedding and it was a major event, practically a national holiday with all the way others were treating it. Dignitaries and their families were gathered below and steadily streaming into the palace. However, a sea of pink was making its way through the crowd of nobility and diplomatic officials.

'Looks like all of Pinkie's sisters managed to make it,' Emerald thought with a chuckle as she spied the horde of Pinkie clones making their presence known. 'Nice to have something to dampen all the pretentiousness.'

Opinions of the people who called themselves her 'friends' aside, Emerald was legitimately excited about today. To think that five years ago she was toiling under Alex Mercer's reign, murdering people and framing innocents for crimes against Blackwatch. She would have never considered in a thousand years she'd still end up getting happily married down the road. Back then she would have been happy with a safe hole in the ground and no threats to ever worry about again, and now...

'I'm getting married!' Emerald thought with a grin. 'She is going to be my wife and I'll be hers. I know it's happening for certain, but I can still hardly believe it!'

There was a knock on the door and, after a moment, it opened and in walked Cadence. The alicorn of love trotted over with a lot of happy energy and smiled at Emerald.

“Ah, how is the blushing bride to be?” Cadence asked happily.

“Am I blushing?” Emerald asked self consciously and reached up to her face with a hoof. Examining her own biological functions, Emerald found that she really was blushing. Quickly stopping that, she faced Cadence. “Wow, I wasn't expecting that to happen. I know I am really happy right now, but usually I can keep my head on straight regarding my own body.”

“Really happy?” Cadence asked curiously. With hoof on her chin, she leaned in close to Emerald and examined her face with a deeply considering expression. After a moment, she gasped loudly. “Emerald... do you love Twilight?”

“I do, with all my heart,” Emerald answered without hesitation.

“...Shining Armor told me you didn't truly love Twilight,” Cadence said suddenly with a serious expression.

“He did, did he? Well he did promise not to tell Twilight,” Emerald huffed before shaking her head. “Ah well, it doesn't really matter anymore.”

“Yes, because you do love her. Truly, truly love her.” Cadence smiled happily. “I was so worried when I heard about your feelings on your relationship. To just put up with being with someone...”

“Yeah, I can imagine the Princess of Love was rather concerned with the situation,” Emerald commented lightly.

“To tell the truth, I was coming to confront you,” Cadence replied honestly. “I don't think I could have bared to just silently watch Twilight get married to someone who didn't truly love her. Not wanting to make a scene with so many politicians, I decided to just talk to you before the wedding.”

“... You do NOT know how happy I am you didn't wait until the whole ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’ part to speak up about this.” Emerald sighed as she face hoofed at the absolute political storm that would have occurred had Cadence spoken her doubts about the wedding in the middle of the wedding. “I think I would have had to deal with the aftermath of you doing that for years, if not decades. I mean, god damn, if everyone got it in their head our wedding was founded on lies... trying to fix it would be incredibly irritating to say the least.”

“Which is why I decided to do this discreetly.” Cadence smiled. “I know very well the two of you have to put up with enough drama as it is without me adding to it.”

“Thank you so much...” Emerald said and then proceeded to hug Cadence out of sheer gratitude.

“...The politics is getting to you, isn't it?” Cadance asked after a moment.

“It's funny. I've had to fight and fight for two blood soaked years and yet it's dealing with people clamoring for my every free moment that is starting to make me crack,” Emerald said as she released Cadence with an almost ashamed look. “I thought I was stronger than this...”

“There are many kinds of strength, and clearly politics isn't appealing to any of yours,” Cadence replied in a kindly reassuring tone. “For what's it's worth, it's been a bit of a struggle for me to adapt to this kind of life as well.”

“I suppose if I take Celestia as an example, I'll get used to this eventually,” Emerald said with a sigh. “In a thousand years, give or take a century.”

“Now, now. Just put all of that out of your mind, Emerald!” Cadance encouraged, “This is your big day! Your wedding to the love of your life! Don't let work take this happy day from you!”

“Don't need to tell me twice,” Emerald said as she started to smile again. “I thought I was going to be more annoyed with having to make a political spectacle of my wedding but I feel like I couldn't care less. This is my day, our day, and nothing can go wrong as long as we don't let it get between us.”

“That's the spirit!” Cadence shouted as she got behind Emerald and started giving her a push towards the wardrobe. “Now the big moment itself is quickly coming up. Best to get ready early so there's no rushing.”

An hour later found Emerald standing in her wedding dress, standing at the altar with Celestia beaming down at her, very obviously happy to preside over her student's wedding. Filling the pews were hundreds of ponies and many dozens upon dozens of foreign representatives. Pinkie's sisters were obvious as a massive patch of pink dominating whole lines of pews. And of course only those she considered friends were given seats in the very front. Belvedere seemed content to make small talk with Bon Bon while Rose Locks was utterly enamored with the wedding; wide, glittering eyes took in the scenery as her head moved this way and that while Time Turner looked distinctly nervous by this. Lyra was bothering both Clock Work and Lightning Dust. Sunset Shimmer sat calmly, happy to be a part of everything, looking rather ravishing in her own warm colored gown. Standing off to the side near Emerald and Celestia were the girls, wearing glittering beautiful gowns. Rainbow Dash was trying not to look irritated with Lyra bugging Lightning, whom the pegasus invited. Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were trying to keep Pinkie from getting too excited by all her sisters when they were supposed to be standing still.

'I get the feeling that a lot of the invited dignitaries are a bit put out by the presence of so much riffraff,' Emerald thought with a brief smirk. 'Well too bad. If it weren't for their constant nagging, this would have been a much smaller and private affair.'

Suddenly the low roar of people talking was hushed by a few brief notes played on an organ. With that the main doors to the chamber flew open and the song began in earnest. First through the doors was Navi wearing a pretty little white dress as well as her hat which she utterly refused to be without. She was currently a little pegasus using her magic to levitate a basket and toss flower petals as she went. Navi might have been a little eager at her job and was tossing petals so hard people in the nearby pews were being showered by them. Spike was walking along trying to maintain some dignity in the face of his partner's eagerness. The little dragon was wearing a tux and was carrying a cushion bearing the two golden bracelets.

Next came in Twilight, accompanied by her father. She was wearing a baby blue wedding dress dotted with magenta stars much like her cutie mark. Atop her head was a tiara designed much like the Element of Magic. Attached to the tiara was a long veil cascading down both the front and back of her head. Through the veil, Emerald could see Twilight softly laughing at Navi's excited antics. Her father was wearing a tuxedo and was looking rather happy.

'I've been a bit worried about Night and Velvet,' Emerald thought as she glanced over at Twilight's mother also standing with the girls and tearfully watching on. 'They seemed reluctantly accepting early on regarding the both of us. Glad to see that's passed, now.'

Thankfully Navi's basket of flowers had been packed extra full so the little virus didn't run out despite her enthusiasm, even though it meant there was now a simply ludicrous amount of flower petals covering the floor and some of the guests. Navi and Spike took up their positions nearby while Twilight finished her march down the aisle.

Soon Twilight took up her position at the altar. Finding herself staring Twilight in the eyes through her veil, Emerald couldn't help but think about all the things that led up to this moment. It wasn't a path free of mistakes and bad decisions that she had walked. She had hurt many people alongside those she had helped. She had built the prosperity of the diamond dogs upon plundered resources and riches, but in doing so raised an enslaved people out of the mire of their misery. There were just so many things she had done that could be contrasted with the morality of another act. But through all her times both good and bad, she had been with Twilight. Choosing to live with her had been the one choice that would change her for the better; slowly, surely and sometimes reluctantly, but change did come.

'I would choose to live through it all, all over again if it meant I would be with her,' Emerald thought without a moment's hesitation.

Twilight for her part was deep in thought about everything she and Emerald had been through together. From the day they first met, when she began teaching her basic education and magic, Twilight had always felt that Emerald Gleaner was someone that was in earnest need of help. Even now with Emerald stronger than the princesses, stronger than Discord, this feeling had not abated. Yes, even now this feeling was present, though not nearly as strongly. Emerald still needed a bit of help now and then but she and her friends were willing to give her that help. Falling in love was never really part of the plans she had for herself, though granted if she had her way she would have stayed in Canterlot with her nose stuck in a book and rarely leaving the library. She supposed that back then if she never really ran into someone that interested her she would have been fine with her books. The last thing she expected was to fall for a mare, her friend, and end up marrying her a few short years later. The adventures and trials they went through together certainly had a hand in rapidly forming their relationship.

'It wasn't an easy three years to get to this point,' Twilight thought. 'And it most certainly isn't over. My life is just getting started and I already have eternity to look forward to. I can only wonder what the coming years, the coming century, will bring me.'

“Ahem!”

The two started at the sudden interruption and looked towards the noise to see Celestia looking down at the both of them with a raised brow and a small, amused smile.

“If the two to be wed were to return their attentions to me...” Celestia said as Emerald and Twilight also noticed a bit of small laughter and good natured tittering echoing the hall. “Emerald Gleaner. Will you take this mare to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“Uhhh, yes!” Emerald said, cheeks flushing briefly in embarrassment.

“And you, Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia turned to Twilight, looking incredibly pleased to be here and presiding over her student's wedding. “Do you take this mare as your lawfully wedded wife?”

“I do,” Twilight said, also looking distinctly embarrassed but happy all the same.

“Then with the exchanging of the ri- ah, bracelets,” Celestia began.

Spike took that as his cue and darted over smoothly and held out the cushion carrying the wedding bracelets. Compared to the complexity and the artistic appearances of the engagement bracelets they had before, the wedding bracelets were noticeably plainer. Emerald's bracelet looked like a small vambrace and bore a crest of her cutie mark made out of gemstones. Twilight's was a bit smaller with a symbol of a tree whose canopy was stylistically shaped into her own star cutie mark. But while they were plain in appearance, they were so much more. The both of them had poured forth their magical knowledge to give the bracelets that would be given to one another powerful enchantments. Twilight knew the last thing Emerald needed was whatever protections could be empowered onto a bracelet. So she designed the runes to protect not her, but the bracelet itself. Emerald for her part had made the gemstones in Twilight's bracelet out of her enhanced ones meant for storing magical power. There was not a lot of power she could put in them compared to the ones she used for the bio gears or even her secret project, but they still held a ton of magic; easily ten times more than was in Twilight herself. Emerald had piled on layers upon layers of runic protections and effects designed to nullify certain effects. Extreme temperature control, kinetic energy absorption, magical deflection, oxygen conversion and purification of local atmosphere just to name a few.

Magically levitating the bracelets from the cushion, Emerald and Twilight each lifted their right foreleg and held out their hoof. They then placed the bracelets on one another and closed the clasps.

“I pronounce you wife and... wife!” Celestia announced, her voice echoing through the hall. “You may kiss the bride!”

And with that the two leaned in to give each other a lingering but chaste kiss on the lips to the cheers of the hall. It was then that Emerald noticed a peculiar but pleasant smell emanating from Twilight mixed together with the pleasant scent of lavender.

“Interesting perfume you got on there,” Emerald commented with a smile as she pulled away from Twilight.

“Thank you. I got it from Rarity.” Twilight smiled widely as they began walking down the aisle together to the cheers of everyone in the hall.

“I smell lavender, but what is that other smell?” Emerald asked as Rarity began bawling her eyes out.

“Oh, it’s just lavender,” Twilight replied.

“Hmm...” Emerald was about to investigate further but decided to put it off for now. She was just married, after all. She was allowed to have a few days off to do nothing.

The two walked through the massive doors of the hall to open air, trumpets, yet more cheers and raining flower petals, along with a red carpet leading to a decadent carriage ready to carry them away. The two of them trotted down the red carpet to loud accolades. Trying to maintain dignity without outright running to the carriage, the two rushed as fast as they could before finally reaching the door and going inside. Closing the door and casting a quick spell reduced the roar of the crowd to a muffled rumble.

“Finally, just the two of us...” Twilight said with a sigh as she took the seat next to Emerald and leaned into her.

“Yeah, just us and that resort in the mountains for the next five days,” Emerald replied as the carriage lurched and began to move.

“Hmph. Normally a honeymoon is twice that long,” Twilight huffed. “They really can't let you have time to yourself, can they?”

“No they cannot,” Emerald sighed in response as Twilight affectionately nuzzled her neck.

The smell of lavender filled Emerald's nose along with that mystery scent. The virus had been content to ignore it before, but it was a bit much to stand by that decision when Twilight was going to be pressing into her for a twenty minute carriage ride to the air dock. As the scent continued to fill her senses, Emerald's mind worked at the mystery until it suddenly became very apparent just what the smell was.

“OH. MY. GOD!” Emerald said with wide eyes.

“What?” Twilight pulled back and then saw Emerald's utterly shocked expression and became worried. “Emerald, what's wrong?”

“Twilight you're...” Emerald hesitated, unsure for a moment. “You're pregnant.”

“...” Twilight simply sat there and blinked at Emerald for a long moment before the full realization of what Emerald had just said hit her. “WH-WHAT!? H-ow!?! Emerald, how can I be PREGNANT!?! You're a mare! Every time we've been together, you were female each time! How in the world could I possibly be-”

“Not every time,” Emerald quickly interrupted and suddenly looked embarrassed.

“Emerald?”

“You remember when we first got back from Earth and I wanted to show you I didn't care if you were pony or human?” Emerald said quietly and got a scarlet faced nod from Twilight. It had been quite the experience for her, after all.

“Well...” Emerald continued. “As it turns out, I may have gotten a tad bit... excited. And in my excitement I may have unthinkingly given the tentacles I created that night a bit of potency. So uh... as you can imagine, when I...”

“You got me pregnant... with your... t-tentacles?” Twilight said slowly with wide eyes and flushing cheeks.

“Sorry?”

“...No it's fine, don't apologize,” Twilight huffed. “Honestly, it's like we can't do anything normally anymore.”

“I don't think it's normal for a mare to get another mare pregnant,” Emerald pointed out with a small smile.

“Not the point. I was going to ask you during our honeymoon about our potential options for having a foal,” Twilight said softly as she leaned back into Emerald's side. “I suppose there is little point in talking about it now.”

“You wanted to have a foal?” Emerald asked in some surprise.

“Well not right away, but ever since Navi became a little girl, our little girl, I was thinking of the future. About giving her a little sister or brother,” Twilight replied. “I wanted us to have one in a few years, when everything calmed down a bit more and you got used to juggling political work with family.”

“I get the feeling things will never calm down.” Emerald sighed. “Year after year, something big always happens and we end up having to deal with it.”

“It has to let up sometimes, doesn't it?” Twilight asked. “The world can't keep throwing us surprises forever.”

For a long moment silence filled the interior of the carriage, the two newlyweds just watching the Canterlot scenery slowly roll by.

“You do realize you can't take part in the operation anymore, right?” Emerald said suddenly.

“I know. It would be far too dangerous for the baby,” Twilight replied softly. “But who will take my place?”

“I've got an idea of who,” Emerald answered, thoughts drifting to a certain unicorn. “But enough about that. It's our honeymoon and I want no work at all. Is that clear, Mrs. Gleaner?”

“That's not how pony names work.” Twilight grinned at her wife. “But yes. Loud and clear, Mrs. Sparkle.”

With that, Emerald and Twilight closed the minuscule distance and kissed.

EPSILON

Late at night, so late in fact it was getting very close to morning, Emerald Gleaner was sitting at the edge of a cliff in human form wearing her casual clothes. The very same cliff edge she had placed two tombstones on nearly three years ago.

Emerald had neglected to visit at all since making the graves and the location had become overgrown with bushes and tall grasses. She had set about fixing that right away, clearing away all the underbrush and beautifying the location a bit. She got rid of most of the bushes, trimmed the grass down to a nice level and installed some flagstone pathways, then proceeded to replace the tombstones with something better. Soon the basic stone tombstones were replaced with black polished marble with the words etched in with expert quality.

After placing some long, burning candles beside each grave, Emerald sat with her back leaning against her mother's tombstone and watched the far horizon slowly turn pink.

“I just got married, mom,” Emerald said softly, and it was like the world itself quietened to let her speak. “I just married Twilight and I still can't believe this could still happen to me after everything I've done and been through. I'm so happy. I wish it had been a more private thing, but I don't mind if it had to be made this big, international event. The one thing that would have made it perfect in spite of everything would have been if you were there.”

The grief Emerald felt for the loss of her mother was still there. It hadn't been the burning open wound it had been when she first arrived in Equestria, but she could still feel it simmer quietly beneath the surface. She had loved her mother dearly and even now nearly six years after her death she still mourned quietly every now and then.

“Twilight is pregnant,” Emerald said quietly just as there was a brief, sudden gust of wind. “What I would have given to see your face at being given that news... I know you would have loved Navi like she was your granddaughter by blood, but I also know you would have adored a baby.”

Emerald breathed in deep and felt something surge in her, like something shifted inside of her. She was feeling rather emotional right now. Along with that, she was feeling like everything was a bit unreal atop of some tunnel vision. The wind picked up again and blew through her hair and the feelings dissipated. She sat up a bit straighter and enjoyed the feeling of the breeze upon her skin before returning to the slowly brightening horizon.

“It's going to be a girl. It's too early to tell for sure, but I feel it in my heart that it will be a girl,” Emerald said aloud. “I hope that... I hope you don't mind if I name her Adela.”

Emerald closed her eyes as the breeze gently ran across her skin and through her hair. At the very edges of her senses she could only imagine her mother's reply. The words that her mother would say...

“Of course I wouldn't mind.”

Emerald's eyes shot open. That voice had been a little bit too real to be a hopeful imagination. Any consideration of her having somehow fooled herself into hearing her mother's voice vanished when she felt a hand clasp hers. She snapped her head to the side and her shocked, wide eyes beheld her mother sitting beside her, looking the way she did the day she died.

“Hello, honey,” Adela Osäker said with a gentle smile.

The virus didn't exactly recall what happened next. Her vision just blurred and her mind seemed to be lost briefly in a chaotic torrent of half formed thought. All she knew was that some time later she found herself holding on tight to her mother, her chest heaving as she bawled her eyes out, her mother's arms wrapped around her barely doing anything to calm her down.

“Shhhh. It's okay, honey,” Adela soothed, rubbing Emerald's back with one hand.

“... H-how c-can this b-be happening?” Emerald questioned, hiccuping a little bit. “I watched you die. I buried you. I-I-I-”

It was then that Emerald truly took in her apparently resurrected mother. She was partially transparent, easily missed at a glance but impossible once your eyes were on her and her form glittered with tiny lights. She knew then and there her mother wasn't really there. Although she somehow could hold her and feel her, she was still dead, a ghost. She also knew that this could be some trick, that Adela could be some magical construct created by someone to manipulate her, but she cast away that thought as soon as it appeared. Somehow she knew, in her heart, in her very soul… she knew this was her mother's ghost and not some fake.

Emerald returned to holding her mother, to enjoying the embrace she thought she'd never know again. She continued holding her mother for some time, but with the night sky continuing to fade away in the approaching morning light, that time was coming to an end. As the light of the sun cresting the horizon touched her ghostly form, Adela released a loud yawn.

“Sweetheart, I feel tired. I feel like I don't have much more time here,” Adela said as her eyelids felt heavier with every passing moment. In response to this, Emerald silently shook her head and and tightened her hold as if that would make her mother stay. “Emerald!”

“Ack!” At her mother's sudden stern tone, Emerald's old instincts flared up. She let go of her and sat up straight and gave Adela her full attention.

“Before I... before I go, I need you to do something for me,” Adela began and had to shake her head clear of exhaustion. Emerald quickly nodded her head and she continued with one arm pointing behind her. “I want you to get rid of that tombstone.”

Emerald turned to see that Adela was pointing at the grave she had made for Oskar, for herself.

“My child is not dead,” Adela said firmly, placing both her hands on the sides of Emerald's head and stared deeply into her eyes. “She lives, she has a wife, a wonderful daughter in law I wish I could get to know. She has given me one grandchild and already has another one on the way. She is living a full life with a family. So you will get rid of that grave right this instant, do you understand me?”

“Yes mom,” Emerald answered immediately.

“Good. Go do it.” Adela nodded.

Not wasting a single moment, Emerald rose up and quickly walked over to the tombstone and, with a heave, wrenched it out of the ground. She quickly tossed it over the cliff edge where it would tumble onto the rocks below and smash into pieces. Turning back to the grave, she noted it still looked like a grave plot, just lacking its tombstone. With a wave of her hand, Emerald cleared away all evidence there had ever been more than one grave in this location. With that, she returned to her mother's ghost.

“Honey... I just want you to know I still love you... and in fact I'm proud of you...” Adela's eyes fluttered as she fought against the desire to fall asleep. “You've gone through so many terrible things and, yes, did terrible things too. But look at you. You're better now. You're happy. It's all I could have ever wanted... for you to be happy, to have a fulfilling life...”

“Mom...” Emerald could feel tears in her eyes and quickly darted over to hold her mother again. For the longest time she held onto her, hoping against hope that would somehow make her stay. And for a moment it seemed to work. Her mother returned the embrace and hummed a song she used to sing to her at bedtime.

And then, abruptly, she was gone and Emerald was left holding empty air.

Emerald continued to sit on her knees at her mother's grave and cry, but rather than feel heartbroken, she felt lighthearted instead. She felt like a great many things had been lifted from her shoulders because of her mother's words. Bright smile contrasting her streaming tears, Emerald wiped her face clean and turned to face the rising sun. Seeing the sun now just rising fully past the horizon, Emerald returned to the resort with a flash of light.

Twilight would be waking up soon, after all.

ZETA

In the Spiritual Realm there was a place of eternal gray haze at the heart of which stood seven figures forever frozen in place.

Normally the Spiritual Realm was a forever shifting, amorphous realm of souls and oceans of mystical energy. However, for those of beyond prodigious skill with magic, one could have a long lasting influence upon the Realm. As was the case with one of these frozen figures, Star Swirl the Bearded, Pillar of Equestria.

For a thousand years Star Swirl and his fellow Pillars of Equestria had remained frozen in the Spiritual Realm along with the Pony of Shadows. The only mercy here was that none of them were conscious of what was going on.

And so it was that the Pillars of Equestria and their prisoner remained frozen, every day, every hour, every second, for a thousand years unchanging... until one day something finally did.

There was the sudden scent of the salty ocean air followed by an icy breeze that blew away the haze. In the distance, two massive tidal waves were rushing in along a nonexistent floor and ceiling. The waves passed below and above the Pillars and the Pony of Shadows. Above and below the water was a foamy, swirling broth until they settled into a calm surface with gentle waves.

Suddenly a massive, serpentine form burst forth from the bottom ocean to the top ocean. The massive serpent threaded between the floor and the ceiling until its looping body surrounded the figures from all sides. A great head emerged from the water and came to a stop near the frozen beings.

The Mighty Greater Spirit, Endless, took in the forms of those frozen in place. It stared in interest at the Pony of Shadows but its great eyes narrowed in anger as it turned its attention upon the Pillar of Equestria. It breathed in deeply before exhaling a great icy mist onto all the figures.

Screams and shouts of surprise filled the air as the Pillars of Equestria suddenly animated and fell to the ocean below them. Rather then simply sink into the seemingly infinitely deep ocean below them, they impacted into the surface harshly like it was a floor. The Pony of Shadows remained floating in midair thanks to its shadowy body.

“AH HA! YES! I AM FREE! FREE TO SPREAD SHADOWS TO ALL CORNERS OF- AHH!” the Pony of Shadows began when suddenly a massive pair of jaws clamped down inches from its face.

“End your prattling and seek the gathering. I shall deal with these interlopers,” Endless commanded.

“The... the gathering?” the Pony of Shadows questioned in some confusion only to get an irritated growl.

“You are a spirit, are you not?” Endless demanded with bared teeth. “Seek the gathering! NOW BEGONE!!!”

Not willing to anger the clearly superior spirit, the Pony of Shadows rapidly faded from view. Once the other spirit was gone, Endless turned its massive form towards the Pillars of Equestria who were gathered together and gazing guardedly at the Greater Hippocampi. Endless ran his gaze over each, but in the end only one concerned him. The unicorn in the pointed hat radiated power; the same power as those who had chained the world. Based upon this and this alone, Endless decided what their fates would be.

“Trespassers. You dare impress a form upon this pure, shapeless realm!” Endless roared as the waters started to churn and a biting chill filled the air. “You dare walk upon this plane of souls with bodies of flesh?! SUFFER FOR YOUR AVARICE!!!”

With one final roar, the mighty spirit charged.

-TBC-

Author's Note:

AN: AND DONE! I had been hoping to get this finished much quicker then the last chapter but... well events conspired for things to happen as they did. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter and leaves a comment or review!

EN: So I was told a sort of spoiler about this chapter shortly before I started editing, but it still managed to surprise me. Twice. Interesting how things turned out.

EN2: So Legionary came to me early this morning telling me I had missed a lot of stuff. Naturally, I was confused how much I could have missed, but I volunteered to take a second read through of the chapter just to double check. And… wow, he was right. I did miss a lot of stuff. I kept up a running tally of the bigger things like missing words, incorrectly spelled words, wrong words used, etc. Not counting small things like extra punctuation, minor missing punctuation or incorrect capitalization, my total tally by the end of this chapter came to 46. Granted, that’s a pretty small number compared to Nearly 16,000 words that made up this chapter… but that’s just unacceptable. I would like to formally apologize to Legionary for my poor showing this last chapter, and to all readers who may have been thrown off by these errors.

Comments

[Zaralann]

This is kind of awesome, but the pregnant part feels kind of out of nowhere... Ehhh. I'll take it, but the happiest part of me sees Pony of Shadows free and soon to be eaten by Emerald.

[Cheesejellycommander4]

This chapter leaves me with a great many questions. Despite this, it was great. Navi was adorable, the scene with emerald's mother was heartwarming, and the ending left me wanting more. Good chapter for a good book.

[ABitterPill]

Tentacle Pregnancy.... that is just golden!

And that scene with Adela and Emerald was very sweet. I hope it truly was Adela. Considering all the shady background goings-on currently it's hard to believe something so good could be true. I really do hope it was.

[More Dakka]

‘I need to spend more time with my daughter. I know I’ll teach her to fight’ never change, Emerald… never change.

A rare note of criticism. The reveal that a certain someone was a certain someone’s sister felt like stumbling across a creators note you forgot to delete. Maybe could have done with a little more show and a little less tell. I’m also sad we didn’t actually get to see the confrontation between Emerald and the more religious dogs.

On a much less critical note, I really loved the descriptions of all the other spirits, and can’t help but wonder what specific powers Emerald could gain from them- Same with the part with Luna, especially how it's left ambiguous weather her feeling of being watched was simply a result of Emerald’s presence or if it's deeper foreshadowing.

I also loved the segment with Rainbowdash and how they both recognized that they’re doing something stupid, but felt compelled to do it anyway; it was very believable. I can’t wait to see how Gilda’s mother will react to this, if she will even accept this griffin as her daughter… or how Gilda herself will react knowing that Emerald killed her father... Emerald may have traded one problem for another.

On a final note, this quote seemed relivent. Mother is god in the eyes of a child. -silent hill

[Undead bear shark]

The unicorn in the pointed hat radiated power, the same power as those who had chained the world. Based upon this and this alone, Endless decided what their fates would be.

This implies a lot of information. Not only that Starswirl is powerful enough to make a greater spirit pause in caution. But the far more important part of this is that Starswirl was the one to force the spirits into sleep. Or at the very least he helped Harmony with this utterly massive job. Starswirl's a badass.

[Midnight Moon]

Legionary... if you left out that bit with the Pony of Shadows and the Pillars of Equestria, that could have been the perfect place to end the story.

Never change.

[MostBrainWhyYes]

Love the Navi bits and the Luna bit. Also Twi being pregnat, makes me wonder how the child will be. And eventually how Navi may interact with them.
I really enjoyed this chapter.
For anyone curious my mouse double-clicks sometimes, I guess it triple clicked and duplicated my post lol, hence the deleted comments below.

[Legionary]

8903953

Huh, I did not notice I ended yet another chapter on a cliff hanger.

8903661

I admit I probably could have hinted at her existence via Discord's thoughts once or twice at least.

I enjoyed thinking them up, unlike more "modern" spirits most of these ones are incredibly ancient and come from a time before sentience and any form of civilization in fleshy creatures. So I wanted to reflect that.

[How to avoid swords]

Stop posting in the middle of the night you sadist.

[Heidao]

Tentacled hentai, confirmed

So an age old topic had been addressed, if Emerald could "resurrect" Gilda, and would she?

A meeting of the primordials, the aspects of the world, all for a single message, the rest gather for something big.

The knot is tied and "Surprise, you're preggers!!"

RIP Pillars

[Past Participle]

When The End was talking about the growing and inevitable irrelevance of the primordial spirits, it brought a wholly uncalled for smile to my face.

"We, the forces that shaped the world in ways no mortal being can ever hope to understand or appreciate, now face our most daunting challenge. UNEMPLOYMENT
*cue thunder, lightning, collective gasps of horror, etc.*

While it's good to see that Emerald finally had some sense talked into her something that looks like her mother figure, I'm more curious about the nature of this new development with this unborn child. I mean, the one person who could tell us what it is wasn't exactly paying attention at the time, meaning that it could be anything from a healthy and normal pony (unlikely) to a being with implications about as disturbing as PARIAH. I may be a connesieur of dispair, but even I'm hoping it at least is genetically stable enough to come to term....

Worst/best case scenario: Twilight becomes the first recorded case of a mother contracting a disease from their own unborn child.

[Durid the Druid]

Great chapter, though it looks like The End for all it's build up is just calling a board meeting. A board meeting of greater spirits of Equis, but still a board meeting. LOL

One big critique though, the near full on Lazerus at Rainbow Dash's request... Well, granting it I can see. But it really needs a little speech to Dash about Emerald being able to create a 'new' life with all the memories of her friend, but Emerald doesn't really eat souls. The new griffin would be a sister to Glinda at best, a child already burdened with the memories of her orginator.

[Legionary]

8906064
Actually Emerald does eat souls and so does every other Blacklight life form. It's just that she doesn't know she does and even if she did doesn't know how to get them out of her "stomach"

[Durid the Druid]

8906455
*sigh* Welp, here goes another terror of reason for my spiritual refrigerator. I'll put it right next to the 'Chauthlu might be real.' , 'I have no mouth and I must scream', and Undertale's Chara and Stephen King's Pennywise is not people you want to meet. I hope what Emerald just did release the soul.

[The Pyropath]

This chapter was pretty awesome, but that ending really confused me...the Pony of Shadows isn't a spirit, unless Stygian somehow ascended to that level when he turned to Darkness. Even then, I wouldn't think he'd have met any of the other spirits or know what this gathering is - though I have a feeling he really doesn't and in fact isn't a spirit, and Endless jumped to a seriously silly conclusion. That begs the question though - what is he going to do now that he's free?

So many threats are seemingly preparing to strike in the background that I'm excited to see just how bad things are going to get if they all happen at once - I've always been fond of melee a trois (or more).

[ErikPhantom]

8906455
Sooo... did Emerald just actually resurrect Gilda then?
Given you said she doesn't know she ate her soul in the first place, let alone how to "throw it up" it would have had to have been be accidental though... Possible incoming existential crisis and "What kind of monster am I?" moment from Emerald realizing she's not only been killing and eating people, she's been devouring their souls as well?
Or did she just make a perfect clone of Gilda including memories up to a specific point, either without a soul or with a completely new one drawn fresh from the Spiritual Realm (like however any other newborn gets a soul?)

And I would think that the Spirits (Sovereign, Primordials, the Elementals, Harmony, etc. (Though in Harmony's case she seems to be the only Spirit actually operating at full capacity and is already is plenty antagonistic, so she may know already.)) would take major umbrage at a soul-eating interloper from another world just existing, let alone eating their realms souls as well.

Unless they don't know (yet), or, more horrifyingly, just don't care.
"Who doesn't snack on the occasional mortal soul every eon or so? They're just so tasty, but I know I shouldn't... Just one won't hurt."

[More Dakka]

8907238 We can hazard a guess what Emeralds reaction will be from the ask blog- ‘Vomiting and disturbed muttering about Sophie’s sister and unborn baby she consumed’

I’ll hazard a guess that Emerald gives her creations a piece of her own soul. Her fight with her other self implies her soul is capable of repairing / regenerating itself.

I also think legionary once said that most souls aren’t strong enough to exist as spirits after death like the masters, and they required conscious effort and study to pull it off, but I can’t remember for sure…

But at any rate something I think is worth keeping in mind is the pinkie clones. They were said to hold at least most of pinkies memories but many of them developed entirely different personalities. Based on this I imagine there’s a chance this new Gilda may become an entirely different person than the old one.

Something else to keep in mind is that Discord caught a glimpse of Emeralds soul after their fight while he was trying to figure out what she was.

Discord used his magic to glance ever so slightly at the soul of the being next to him and had to force down the reflex to shield his eyes. It was like staring into the sun. She shined so brightly in his spirit sight. It was understandable, considering her immense power, but the sight of her soul made it very clear she was very young; she hadn’t even passed her first century yet! How was it that she was able to possess so much power at such a young age? Looking a bit deeper into the eye searing brightness revealed something strange; the very energies of her inner soul were in flux… like it was in conflict with itself. What could that possibly mean?

Does 'being in flux' referee to the personal conflict she was feeling at the time? The fact she keeps the memories of those she consumes isolated as to stop them from influencing her personality, or could it be those she consumed are still aware and struggling in vain to escape? That’s a scary thought.

But if we're talking existential implications I wonder what happened to the souls of all those that basically disappeared when Discords sacrifice overwrote the timeline. Is the Gilda Emerald ate the same Gilda that was fighting infected with her father for three years? and if not what happened to her?

[ToobertSawk]

Fuck, I've caught up

[HappilyDead]

Why is Emerald still thinking like a human? She is not a human, her perception of the world is different than any other being alive. I guess this is where this feels fake. It's all about self preservation, and one thing that Emerald should have gotten rid of, is instincts. Even with a soul she still controls all the cells in her body. You would think--by that logic--she would have gotten rid of most of her emotions to remain neutral in all situations... Though, that would make for a boring story.

[Durid the Druid]

8907821
Um, yeah that. It would also make her A TRUE SOCIOPATH!!!! Not something you want to even be on the same planet of with that much power. And thankfully Emerald is self-aware enough to realize this and avoid it. So yes, she keeps her emotions even when they hurt. And speaking in context of the story, that is a very good thing. FOR EVERYONE ON EQUASTERIA AND EARTH.

Edit: Sorry, I read that as you thinking she should get rid of emotions. I need caffeine.

[More Dakka]

8906455 Wait, does that mean it's actually possible for Emerald to learn how to get the souls of those she consumed out of her, and if so, how does that work, are the souls of those she consumed kept separate from her own? Is there a time limit on this seperation before they’re ‘digested’ and melt into Emeralds soul like an ice sculpture thrown in a bathtub? Are the souls self-aware in either case?

If Emerald did just accidental free Gilda’s soul, like ErikPhantom questioned will Gilda wake up remembering the time spent in Emeralds ‘stomach’? And if it is possible and Emerald learns of it will she feel compelled to resurrect everyone she consumed, including Sophie’s pregnant sister? And if so what would she do upon freeing them, just kick them all back through the portal with no word of warning or explanation and leave earth to deal with it, would she spread the word and knowlage on how to free others?

[Past Participle]

Brewing sewage tsunami of antagonists aside, things seem to be going entirely to well for our heroes. Dash even got a second chance with her former friend, just like that.
.
..
...

Any guesses on the odds that Gilda isn't going be happy when she wakes up? I've just got this sneaking suspicion that she didn't want to be buried in a pet cemetery.

[Vuradux]

TVTropes page shilling: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/OskarOsakerTrueOmnivore

Chapter was worth the wait especially the scence with Emerald's mother

[Legionary]

8909289
Well the souls are rather firmly lodged within Emerald's own, even the concept of "cutting them out" isn't easy in the slightest, it also isn't possible for this to happen accidentally. And even if Emerald did manage to somehow separate the souls there would be consequences to those souls having been within hers. It would be entirely likely they'd leave with a bit more of her than she'd like...

[Warrior Kitten]

I hope the Pillars live.

[Alrarora]

Happy christmas

[Asolem2]

“You got me pregnant... with your... t-tentacles?” Twilight said slowly with wide eyes and flushing cheeks.

Hilarious

[RanBro]

I have a question why is the queen and larvae so creepy I was wondering because the description you gave honestly sounds like mother nature just got drunk decided fuck discord and then they both got more alcohol and then decided to make their new creation similar to changelings but they threw napalm added I know the blacklight virus can and has make disturbing things but can hear why the fuck did the changelings have a ridiculously drastic change like the queen looks almost nothing like the normal changelings and I mean the corrupted changelings or whatever in the larvae I prefer the whole cute bug snug in a sleeping bag better in my opinion

[Legionary]

10195514
The changelings affected by the virus aren't normal by any means, they still look like changelings yes but on a genetic level they are far more separate from "pure" changelings. Basically they are mutants and the queen is a reflection of what they'll look like naturally in the ensuring generations.

The same goes for the Thracian ponies, currently they are all pony like but their viral nature and advanced evolution is there on a genetic level. A Thracian pony can basically breed with anything that is vaguely compatible and the end result would be a chimeric but also completely viable offspring. There is probably going to be a more then a few rather odd looking Thracians way down the line, wouldn't be surprised if they were as diverse as Quirk!Humanity